


Skinny Love

by Madz8998



Category: Sweet Magnolias (TV)
Genre: Annie Sullivan / Tyler Townsend - Freeform, Best Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Love Triangle, Spoiler for Season Finale, Sweet Magnolias, Ty/Annie, conjecture for season 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24539092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madz8998/pseuds/Madz8998
Summary: Spoilers and very loose Conjectures for the Final Episode and Season 2.After Tyler Townsend's little brother Kyle accidentally almost took his sister Nellie's life, Jackson Lewis decides to finally take something from him.Question is: How hard is Ty willing to fight for it?Jackson Lewis/ Annie Sullivan /Tyler Townsend
Relationships: Annie Sullivan / Ty Townsend, Annie Sullivan / Tyler Townsend, Jackson Lewis/Annie Sullivan, Tyler “Ty” Townsend/Annie Sullivan
Comments: 43
Kudos: 92





	1. Chapter 1

Jackson Lewis

Knight in Shining Armor my ass...

While honesty and I have rarely seen eye to eye, I can say without blinking, without a tick in my pulse, without a drop of sweat on my brow, that I have never liked Tyler "Ty" Townsend.

I couldn't tell you when it started, because I honestly don't remember. I can't remember the first time I saw his smug face, or his self-righteous smirk, or the supposed charm in his stoic laid back mien. But I have never lost count of every time my mother has laid into me about every one of Tyler's accomplishments (including being born two weeks before me, weighing five ounces more, and being two inches longer – yes, it went back that far) or every time she reminded me that I simply didn't measure up (both literally and figuratively).

No, I couldn't tell you the minute that I began to hate Tyler Townsend. But I can remember the moment that I chose to take everything away from him. The moment I saw my baby sister unconscious on a respirator and fighting for her life, because Tyler's psycho little brother lost his damn mind and then lost control of Tyler's piss poor excuse for a car.

Yeah, I can remember that moment clearly. Too clearly.

The memory bounces around my mind, as I look around the floor and take a seat at a table in the back of her section, the very back where no one I know might pass by and notice me hanging in one of the lamest restaurants in town. I don't think she realizes how lucky she is that no one at our school has a desire for the passable food or the stuffy as hell atmosphere that her mom has so diligently created.

Somehow I wrangle in the eye roll I'm so desperate to unleash at the thought, but I can't do that. It wouldn't do me any good for her to see me acting an ass. No, I need to reign that shit in. Play the gentleman as I rope her in and snatch away the one thing that both those Townsend boys want so much.

I can do that.

At this time of day, her section is almost empty, but that doesn't stop Annie from giving me the most tolerant hate filled glare possible as she almost throws the menu onto the table between us.

I can tell she wants to ask what I'm doing here, and I can't help but smile at her when we both know that she can't. This is her place of work, her mom's bread and butter. She has to be polite and cheery to every asshole that swings through here and today that means even me, Jackson Lewis.

"Good afternoon," she hisses at me through a smile that is so fake that it almost seems painted on her face, "My names Annie and I'll be your server this afternoon. What can I get you to drink?"

My smile only grows bigger as I pick up the menu.

Stealing Annie Sullivan away from Tyler Townsend might be even more fun than I thought. 


	2. Chapter 2

Annie 

I looked down at the twenty-dollar bill in my hand, a mixture of anger and confusion roiling around in the pit of my gut. 

It was a trap. I don’t know how or even why, but this had to be a trap. I glance around one more time to see if someone is trying to prank me, but just like I had been most of the evening, I’m alone in my section. Jackson Lewis had been my only customer all afternoon. 

When I had taken his daddy-financed platinum to run on a fifteen-dollar meal, I hadn’t expected a dime more from him. He nor his parents seemed the type to ‘tip the help’ as I’d once heard from a sleaze ball trying to justify not leaving a measly couple of bucks on a table for eight. So, after waiting out his departure, I was completely shocked to see the crisp twenty left beside his plate as I went to bus it. 

The brand new twenty had just been sitting there on Table 9. 

On Jackson’s table... 

Jackson LEWIS’s table. 

It wasn’t that it was necessarily that big of a tip. I had gotten bigger before, mostly from people on my birthday, or vacationers traveling through town and feeling super generous, especially when I had to work doubly hard to accommodate a large party. But this was Jackson Lewis. Bully. Jerk. A-hole. Jackson Lewis! 

He hadn’t even ordered anything difficult. Heck, he hadn’t even tried to be a jerk and finagle a beer out of me, but ordered a water with his meal instead. Though l doubt he did that to make my life easier, most likely that was Coach Cal’s influence. Even though the fall was starting to creep quickly upon us and Jackson and Ty had neither club nor high school ball, Coach Cal had made the entire team sign up for cross country at the beginning of the year. Whether it was to throw the new Cross Country Coach a bone, seeing as he had had less than a handful of kids sign up this year or Coach C really wanted the guys to work on their conditioning I don’t know. But they had all done it, even Jackson was seen dedicating his first few months of Senior year to running miles around town. 

When I had taken his order, his thick overly groomed eyebrows had been dancing above a pair of obnoxiously green eyes reminding me that if he had been born in a different century he would have been labeled an imp or a scoundrel or a cad - an ‘avoid at all costs’ sign strung around his neck. 

He was the kind of guy you wished smelled bad. Because someone that awful should have something that indicated how awful they were. 

As an artist, I tried to look inside everything, to see the beauty in all things. But the surface was where all things pleasing ended abruptly with Jackson. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a personality, it was just that what was there wasn’t worth thinking about. Hook worms had more of a purpose in life than Jackson Lewis. 

It wasn’t that Jackson had always been a semi-charming but nearly unbearable tyrant. In grade school he had been almost tolerable, but whatever thing existed between him and Ty had eventually grown into something dark and unavoidable. I am an only child so it’s hard enough for me to understand how someone as talented as Kyle struggled trailing in Tyler’s shadow, so I couldn’t imagine what being that close to the Sun felt like for Jackson. Unlike Kyle, who chose to put all that potential energy into perfecting his craft, Jackson had harnessed it into a weapon. A weapon he pointed directly at anyone even remotely in Ty's orbit: me, Cece, Kyle, even Tyler’s mom Maddie. Trying to dodge his rapier tongue was like trying to run through the rain and not get wet. Impossible. All you could do was put your head down and endure. 

I still don’t know what he had been doing here, why out of all the restaurants in town to patronize he chose my mothers, but I’d bet this crisp twenty that it had something to do with Tyler. Almost everything in Jackson’s life had at least a little something to do with him.

The last time I had seen him, really seen him, had been the night of the prom, where in a matter of minutes we had went from dancing to disaster. I don’t know why, but I had been surprised to see him already there as I had entered the main floor of the hospital. When he and Kyle’s moms, had come out to the waiting room, their eyes swollen and blood shot, as they gave us the news on Kyle and Nellie I had expected him to explode or be callous enough to brush off his sister’s accident but he hadn’t done either. 

In hindsight, I’m not sure I had ever seen someone so still before, least of all Jackson. From the time the boy could walk he had been moving like a shark, never settled in his pathological need for attention. So, to see him standing in front of those floor to ceiling windows and staring into nothingness, that frenetic energy that kept him running having finally burned out, for the first time in my life I had actually felt sorry for the a-hole that had tried to ruin my life. 

However, it didn’t take long for my brief empathy to run its course, from what I could tell at school and going into the summer Jackson had run back to his old ways as fast as a player caught in a run down. 

That was one of the many truths about humanity, people never changed. 

By the time, Nellie and Kyle had been discharged and started their long road to recovery with physical therapy Summer and more important for this town Summer ball had been in full swing. 

From what I could tell covering the games for the town’s socials, neither Kyle nor Ty had missed a single practice much less a single game leading up to the July night that would see them both suspended from the league for three games. I’d been there, the humid air of late Summer making everything murky and disgusting, my camera feeling solid and familiar in my hand as I shot picture after picture of the two teams fighting for first place.

Tyler had been playing an exceptionally good game that night, but I could see the stress the multiple innings were having on him. That was the thing about reading people you had known since the crib, nothing they hid from the rest of the world got past you. 

I was supposed to be getting pictures of Jackson as he took the mound, but my eyes couldn’t leave Ty as he waited on deck, casually swinging the bat. Every muscle he had seemed to be working in accordance with his goal, a body and mind honed from a lifetime of training in a sport that he loved more than anything else in the world. 

No matter how hard I tried to tamp down my unwanted attraction to my friend, it always seemed to flare up in moments like this. There was just something so... indescribable about him. A silent intensity in him that was such a contrast to Jackson’s overbearing obnoxiousness that I wanted to desperately catch that juxtaposition, to highlight that rarely seen disparity. It would have been a pleasure to develop, to keep as one does a feather in their cap, but in my portfolio. But my chance to capture such emotion in a still was completely lost as Ty took his place to bat and then hit the ground as the first pitch Jackson threw was unmistakably at Ty’s head. 

From that one moment things just got worse as Ty threw his bat behind him barely missing a teammate and charged the mound with what I could only assume was fury in his eyes. 

It all happened so quickly I’m not sure who threw the first punch, but as the benches cleared for both teams and the field began to fill with testosterone driven teenage boys, I had simply snapped my photos from the safety of the bleachers. My concern for Ty made my stomach twist in knots, but despite some of the less than genius choices I had made during my sophomore year and unlike the parents and adult bystanders trying to tear the clusters of uniformed boys from each other, I wasn’t an idiot. I knew there wasn’t anything I could do down there, but earn myself an accidental elbow to the face like Mister Townsend. 

I hadn’t seen much of Jackson since then, but I hadn’t seen much of Ty either, but that wasn’t exactly new. 

Since he and Cece had become official or whatever in the heck they wanted to call themselves and Kyle had been grounded from everything but his doctor and therapy appointments I had seen less and less of the boy that I had once upon a time thought of as my best friend. We hadn’t even texted since the night of the crash. 

“I’m praying for Yall.” I had sent after climbing into bed, my makeup having been cried off. 

“thanks” he had replied. 

That had been four months ago. Besides the occasional run in at church or the well-timed bump into at the fields we hadn’t run in the same circles since. 

I thought with school starting that the awkwardness of last spring and the distance that had grown between us over the summer would have blown away like the leaves in autumn. But like the dog days of summer that the south is known for, those things trudged on. After the insurance company took them to task over Kyle driving, when Ty had finally managed to get a new car his mom’s strict rules about non-Townsends riding along had become even stricter. So, for the last month, I made my way back and forth to school alone.   
No Kyle. No Ty. No one. 

I had no one. 

Inwardly groaning at my own maudlin thoughts, I slipped the cash into my apron pocket as I continued to disinfect the tables in my section. Feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to get me anywhere, especially since most of what had fallen apart was my own fault. One stupid mistake, a stupid kiss, that had caused an avalanche of problems. My drunken stupidity had built that wall between us, instead of opening a door it had unequivocally slammed it shut and that message. That completely insane and unbearable message that I had sent had not helped the situation at all, but the real straw that had broken the camels back, the nail that had been driven into the coffin of me and Ty’s friendship had been when Jackson had used Ty’s phone to send that voice recording to EVERYONE in school. 

Even the mere memory of that day, has the ability to cause a fire to begin burning inside me. 

Jackson had done that. 

In one callous, thoughtless, uncaring move he had humiliated me and somehow stolen my best friend away, like the bullying jerk that he is. 

Finished with the tables, I untie my apron and giving the twenty another wistful look slip the bill into our communal tip jar. Whatever Jackson has planned for Ty, whatever was going on between them, I want no part of it. I’m already too busy. 

Junior year has been kind of kicking my butt so far and its only September. But I know that before I blink October will be swinging in with its face of colorful leaves and its crisp sweater weather mornings, followed by rainy November evenings and then Thanksgiving break and then Midterms and December and then Christmas... 

I almost want to massage my temples at the sheer magnitude of everything ahead of me, as I head to the back of the restaurant to clock out and grab my school bag. Squeezing out the back door, I’m met with a wave of hot air I should have been expecting. But despite the eighty plus temperatures still lingering this far South, we have already left the carefree Summer holidays well behind us. 

I know I should be soaking it up more, like Jackson and Cece and Ty and heck even Simon, along with every other high schooler I sit beside everyday, but lately I just want out. I just want out of this town and everyone in it. 

_‘Liar,’_ my mind argues.

Images of intense pale blue eyes and the curve of a soft smile that I’ve known all my life cut through my cynical thoughts. 

_‘Well, maybe not everyone,’_ I grudgingly agree as I start the long trek home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you guys like it. :) Next chapters will be dual POV with Annie and Ty.


	3. Mean

Annie

As I sit hunched over the remains of my lunch, I stare out the bank of windows in the school cafeteria, a feeling of dread beginning to take root in me. Dark clouds had begun to move in on my walk to school this morning and I was hoping, praying more like it, that they would just keep going, but they had only grown darker as the day had dragged on. 

It wasn’t that I feared rain and thunder, far from it, like most people I enjoyed a good storm. The way the raindrops stuck to the windows like little diamonds or the soft sounds they made as the fell against tin roofs and green leaves. But today, the day I had neither a ride nor anyway of getting one, I could only hope that the clouds stayed closed long enough for me to get home. 

“‘Sup Annie.” 

A feeling very similar dread fills me at the drawling familiar voice behind me. 

Narrowing of their own accord I cut my eyes at the chestnut haired jerk who had just taken up residence in the seat beside me. 

It had been almost a week since he had left that twenty-dollar bill on my table at work, and when he hadn’t approached me again, I figured it must have been some kind of fluke. But as he slouches down in the seat beside me, legs wide enough to brush mine, I can already tell I was wrong. 

The school cafeteria may not be my mother’s restaurant, but from an early age my mother taught me not to sink to Jackson’s level, and more importantly never to take his bait. Silence, avoidance, and trying to ignore him, were my usual defenses against his type of assault, but judging by the way he was looking at me I doubted the same ole’ same ole’ would work. 

“What do you want Jackson?” I ask warily, moving my legs to give him more room and trying to keep the true depth of anger and apprehension I feel every time he opens his mouth to myself. 

“Well, aren’t you a well-mannered little miss,” he teases, his sarcasm on full display. When I don’t react, he simply drapes his arm over the opposite chair. “Who said I want anything?” 

I give him my most scathing look, or as scathing as I’m brave enough to give him before turning my attention back to the room, my eyes instantly searching for Tyler’s long frame among the crowd of our peers and coming up empty. 

“Fine,” Jackson concedes, surprising me enough to stare back at him. “I need a Fine Art’s credit.” 

“Okay,” I reply, successfully keeping my voice even. 

“I’m taking Media Arts this semester,” he states, as if that’s all the information that I need. 

For lack of a better reply I nod my head, “It’s a pretty easy class.” 

“Yeah, you’d think right,” he sort of agrees, before leaning forward and clasping his hands on the table. “But I kinda need your help.”

“With what?” I ask, shock having me reply before I think better of it. 

“Photography,” he says, leaning back again and holding his hands up and imitating the click of a camera. 

“Okay,” I say reaching for one of my last baby carrots just to have something to do, but it tastes like ash in my mouth as I take a bite. “But I don’t understand, what does that have to do with me?”

“Isn’t it obvious,” he says, his Cheshire Cat grin displaying all of his perfectly straight teeth. 

“No,” I answer. 

“You’re the Camera Girl.” 

“Camera Girl?” I ask, unable to keep the slight disappointment and hurt from my voice. 

I have gone to school with most of these people since preschool and they had all narrowed my identity down to a single passion I had. Jackson imitates taking a picture again and I shake my head at the whole thing. “Anyway, that’s not what I was saying no to,” I shrug to soften my rejection. “I was saying no to you.” 

“What?!“ he asks, sitting up, his thick eyebrows knit in confusion. “Why?” 

I stare back at him hoping he sees all of the bad history that had grown between us over the years, but judging from his blank look I can only assume he can’t read.

“Isn’t it obvious,“ I throw his words back at him as I grab the remains of my lunch and stand from the table. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if y'all want to read more. I hope to get to Tyler's chapters soon. :)


	4. Rain On Me

Annie

Any hopes and wishes I had of the clouds rolling through and the skies clearing are completely dashed before I’m even able to take a single step off campus. I was in the middle of storing my camera, better known as my baby, in the special double insulated bag my dad had gotten me for Christmas, when I heard the first ominous crack of thunder and the constant deafening roar of wind and water as the clouds opened up and unleashed a torrent of rain on top of our small town.

History had taught me that rushing out would do me absolutely no good when it came to waiting out a storm, so I had taken to walking extra slowly as I made my way through the overly crowded school halls, being occasionally jostled by an over-stuffed back pack as the overhead lights flickered their sickly glow on everyone. Despite my obvious lingering around my locker and sloth like trek down the halls, eventually I had to make my way outside. 

Standing under the carpool pavilion, I pulled my phone out to text my mom, before I remembered that she was at the small business owner’s convention until late tonight. Without thinking, I scrolled down to Tyler’s name. 

**‘thanks’**

My stomach plunged as I read that last text exchange, artifacts of the last time we had really talked. Such a simple thing, so old and so short, but yet still so loud, quickly pulled me out of my daze. 

I couldn’t text him to get me out of this. I just couldn’t. What if he thought I was trying to get his attention or trap him into spending time with me by playing the damsel in distress? What if he told me no? Worse, what if he left me on Read? 

Shaking off the thought, I reminded myself that he probably had Cross Country practice anyway, if it was anything like baseball even during a down pour they were still required to do conditioning in the weight room or at least that’s what Ty had told me once. Turning my back to the wind biting into my bare arms, I quickly switched to Aunt Maddie’s number. I had just finished typing out a message that was half-begging, half-apologizing, when something stopped me before I pushed Send. 

I don’t know why, I can’t explain it. A year ago, it would have been nothing for me to text Aunt Maddie and catch a ride with her and Ty and Kyle, but something in me suddenly hesitated to reach out. It didn’t make sense, but nothing in the last few months had. 

Groaning, I reluctantly shove my phone into the waistband of my jeans, quickly covering it with my shirt so it won’t get wet. 

I know I need to make a decision, and I need to make one fast. 

Despite the day’s earlier heat, I feel my teeth chatter as a gust of wind cuts into my temporary shelter splashing raindrops on my already soaked jeans and tennis shoes. 

Wrapping my arms around my middle, I have the vague memory of my mother reminding me to grab my rain jacket this morning and my selective deafness at her command. It wasn’t that I had been intentionally disobedient, my mind had just been filled with other things. Mostly the pics that Cece’s had just posted on her story the night before and all the nausea inducing feelings that had come with it. 

I know it’s probably coming from an ugly place in me, jealousy a feeling that my youth group has tried to quell in all of us, but I just don’t get why Cece continues to shove her relationship with Tyler down all of her “followers” throats. I mean we all get it, the two of them are “just soooo happy” Tyler is the “perfect boyfriend” they are just the “hottest couple.” 

I’ve tried so hard to be tolerant of her, to look past the feelings I had for my former best friend, to find peace within myself, but if it wouldn’t make it so obvious to everyone we know I would have unfollowed her the moment she had posted that first picture of her and Ty together. 

But I could never do that now, because one - our school was small enough that almost everyone followed everyone and two – unfollowing her would do more damage than that stupid voice message had ever done. Every gossip would latch onto that ‘snubbing’ and create some fictitious ‘love-triangle/cat fight’ between us which was so far from the truth. Cece had won the game, a game I never even had a chance of playing. So, I typically just scroll through as quickly as possible, and blindly like every picture she posts like the good peer that I am. 

Staring out at the impenetrable sheets of rain, I watch as the last car pulls away and resist rubbing at my stinging eyes. Alone and without the benefit of multiple bodies, the wind and the rain work together to negate the roof of the pavilion and start to soak me from my tennis shoes up. Blinking back the unwanted tears that I refused to let fall, because I was not going to feel sorry for myself about Tyler Townsend or the predicament I had found myself in, I pulled my phone from its hiding place. 

I figure these late summer/early fall storms never really last that long, so I pull up my weather app, hoping to see some declining precipitation percents in the near future. Seeing the tiny storm clouds and the occasional burst of cartoon lightening deflates any hope that had begun to grow. 

Just when I’m resigned to the inevitable reality that I’m going to have to swallow my pride – I figure if Tyler or Cece thinks I’m only doing this to get his attention than so be it – and started to pull up Aunt Maddie’s number again, I hear a car horn as someone pulls up beside me. 

For one minute, hope blooms in my chest as I turn to my would-be hero. Maybe, it’s one of the girls from English Lit, I know that they meet for a book club after school sometimes. But as the vehicle comes into view and I recognize the obnoxious color of the truck, the hope I had carried for half-a-second just as quickly as it had blossomed it withers. 

“Hey, Sullivan, “ Jackson shouts as he leans over the passenger seat, “Need a ride?” 

Looking around for any other car, but seeing nothing but an empty parking lot, I cross my arms against the cold and Jackson Lewis, drawing comfort from the feel of my camera bag. 

“Umm, don’t you have practice?” I ask, unable to keep the nervousness entirely from my voice.

His eyes go wide as he moves his head from left to right, as if drawing my attention to the weather. “Seriously?” he asks, that ever-present mirthless laugh in his voice. 

I don’t answer him as I look around the parking lot again. 

“No, Annie I don’t have training,” he says, as if he’s speaking to a child. “Now, you need a ride or not.” 

“Why’re you asking me?” 

“Because my mama taught me right,” he loudly drawls, winking at me in a way that I’m sure he believes is charming. 

I narrow my eyes and look back at him, hoping my face displays the fact that we both know that’s not true, but he just laughs in response. 

“C’mon, Annie,” he shouts over the deafening storm, “Just get in the truck.” 

“I don’t want to get in your truck Jackson,” I shout back as politely as I can. 

“Why not?” he asks, lifting his forearm off the steering wheel in a gesture of confusion. 

“Because my mother actually did teach me right,” I answer, once again throwing his words back at him. 

I expect him to be slightly angry at my jab, but he just laughs again, it’s such a nefarious sound. 

“Look Annie,” he says squinting against the raindrops sneaking into his car and working hard to not let the wind disturb his overly styled hair, “you can get in my car and listen as I use my considerable charm to convince you to help me out with this whole art thing or,” he drags the word out as if a squall wasn’t coming down on us, “you can freeze to death out here in the middle of town like a little match stick girl. Your choice.” 

Every lesson my mother ever taught me about getting into cars with strange boys runs through my head as I stare back at him and the offer of a dry place. 

“I’m fine,” I say, my teeth chattering as another cold gust of wind sends my soaked hair into my face. 

He sighs. “Suit yourself, Annie,” he replies, slowly rolling the window up. 

For one moment, I stand there my pride and my better judgement keeping my squelching shoes stuck to the ground. There is a trembling in my muscles, and I know it’s not all due to the rain and the cold. 

Despite his farewell, his truck sits idly by the gazebo. Clenching my jaw, I make a deal with myself that if he and his truck are still sitting there after one minute... 

By the time I’ve counted to 59, I’m already sliding my backpack off my shoulder and my fingers are pulling on the handle of his passenger side door.

Sliding into the bucket seat and carefully placing my backpack and my camera bag by my feet, I steal a glance at him and absolutely loathe that he doesn’t seem surprised to see me. 

“Look at you seeing reason,” he says, turning the heat up as I slide my phone into my front pocket and then adjust my seat belt.

I expect him to make a snide remark about me ruining his leather seats, I know even Tyler is vigilant about his car, but he doesn’t say anything as he puts it into drive and pulls out of the empty parking lot and onto the equally empty street. I guess when you’re just given everything in life, everything is replaceable. 

Silence stretches and grows between us, only broken by the sound of the trucks heater and the rhythmic swish of the windshield wipers, until I don’t think I can take it anymore. 

“Okay, Jackson,” I say quickly to get the words out before they stick in my throat, “what do you want?” 

For a minute, he looks confused as he stares at the road ahead of us, “I want- “ 

“No, what do you really want?” I ask and he glances back at me like he doesn’t understand my question, before focusing back on the road. “Harassing me isn’t going to get to Ty, you’ve got to know that.” 

For the first time, I see a quiet anger replace his false smile, “This has nothing to do with Tyler Townsend.” 

“Sure, it doesn’t,” I say disbelievingly. 

“It doesn’t,” he reassures dryly. 

“And yet,” I say, hugging my camera bag with my feet, “somehow I find I can’t believe you?” 

“Because, you’re a smart girl,” he says, slipping seamlessly back into his faux-charming fox persona. 

When I only look back at him, he lets his false smile fall. “Look, I just want help with this stupid class.” 

For one moment, all I can do is stare blankly at him. I always knew that Jackson’s ego, his outright audacity was unparalleled, but even this was a bit shocking. How could he think that after the way he treated me last spring, the way he has always treated Ty, that I could possibly even entertain the idea of helping him out. 

I wonder how much my thought process has shown on my face because he subtly gulps. 

“I’m sorry, but did you conveniently forget that you are solely responsible for one of the most humiliating moments of my life.” 

“What’re you talking about?” he asks sounding genuinely confused.

“When you sent that-that,” I stumble over my words, “that message, to everyone at school.” 

“Oh,” he says, as if this is the first time he had thought of it. 

Shaking my head as I cross my arms, I watch the familiar rain soaked streets pass us. 

He laughs to himself. “Well, Annie,” he drawls, “It sounds like you conveniently forgot that Townsend was the one playing your little message for anyone to hear.” 

Anger spikes in me at his audacity. “Are you serious? You’re gonna have to do a little better than shifting the blame to convince me to help you.” 

Giving me a contrite grin that doesn’t show a single tooth he starts, “You’re a good little church girl, right? Aren’t y’all supposed to be full of forgiveness and turning the other cheek and all that?” 

“I think you have to ask for forgiveness before you can actually receive it,” I reply. 

“Look, I’m sorry,” he apologizes, but his tone lacks sincerity. 

“I’ve never done anything to you, Jackson,” I say, but I stop and gulp when I hear the crack in my voice. “Why’d you, do it?”

I see a tick in his jaw, before he answers. “Maybe it had nothing to do with you?” 

“So, I was just collateral damage?” 

“Look, I’m sorry you got hurt by all that all right,” he replies, his forearms flexing as he tightens grip on the steering wheel. “But I’m not sorry you found out that Tyler Townsend isn’t the little fucking white knight that everyone thinks he is.” 

I flinch at his language. It’s not that I’m a prude necessarily, but the venom and vehemence behind his words was a little more shocking. But my fear is quickly quelled by my knee jerk reaction to defend Ty. 

“That’s not fair,” I say, letting a little of my anger out in my friend’s defense, “You stole his phone.” 

He begins to slow the truck as we come to a stop sign, and I watch his knuckles turn white as he tightens his grip on the steering wheel. Then he laughs, that somewhat terrifying laugh that never fails to make my blood run cold, because I know whatever he has to say next will cut someone up. 

“Of course you’re gonna take up from him,” he chuckles, but there is no mirth in his words. “Dude, puts you at the back of the pantry for later, and you still see him as the good guy.” 

“Ty _is_ a good guy!” I argue. 

He shrugs, pulling out of the four-way, “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Annie.” 

A silence settles in the truck’s cab. The kind of silence that you’re worried that you might be breathing too loudly. 

Since, I got into this car with Jackson Lewis all I have felt is regret at making such a dumb decision. I should have just called Aunt Maddie. I should have just waited it out. I should have just run home. There is a lot of should haves, but I can’t go back only forward and if I want Jackson to leave me alone, I need to put an end to whatever he thinks he’s trying to get going. 

“Look whatever is happening between you and Ty,” I say, keeping my voice even, “just-just leave me out of it.” I pause to put weight behind my plea, “Please.” 

With his free hand, he pinches the bridge of his nose, “This hasn’t got anything to do with Tyler, why won’t you believe me?” 

“Seriously?” 

“All right,” he admits, “That’s fair.” 

Shockingly, he uses his blinker as he pulls onto my street and I see a decidedly determined set to his mouth. “Look, I need the credit and I need to at least pass the class, if you don’t want to help me I’ll find someone else. I only asked you, cause you were recommended by basically every freaking person I talked to, but if you really don’t want to do it, that’s fine.”

He didn’t turn to me during his pitch, hadn't tried to weaponize those big green eyes. For the first time, he seemed dejected. Almost... helpless. 

Taking a deep breath, I know I’m going to regret this like I’ve regretted so many things before. Closing my eyes, I let it out.

“Fine, “ I sigh, “I’ll do it.” 

“For real?” he asks, finally turning towards me. 

Resigned, I nod. 

He lets out a chuckle that sounds like relief. “Thanks.”

“But,” I am quick to add, “I want to be compensated for all my time and hard work.” 

“Compensated? Like, you want money?” 

“Yep,” I said nodding my head for emphasis. 

“You’re not going to do it out of the goodness of your heart,” he answered, trying his best to give me puppy dog eyes, but he just looks like a deranged wolf. 

For some reason, I still feel the slightest twinge of guilt, like I’m taking advantage of the situation, but then I remember who I’m talking to, “Not for you.” 

“Ouch,” he said grabbing his chest as he laughed looking through the windshield at my house. “Well I did say you were a smart girl,” he admits, “all right twenty an hour sound good.” 

“Forty,” I reply. 

“Forty?” He paused. “Forty American Dollars?!”

“That’s the going rate for a good tutor,” I shrug. He can take it or leave it. 

“Thirty,” he counters. 

I feel my jaw drop, he was really trying to bargain with me after almost begging me to help him. When he lifted one of those thick dark eyebrows, I could see a lot of his mother in the expression. 

“Thirty-five,” I answer, trying to keep my voice strong and determined. 

He grumbles, “Fine.” As if I had just haggled him down to pennies. 

“Okay then,” I say putting out my hand, “It’s a deal.” 

For a minute, he just stares at my offered hand, his green eyes surprisingly bright in the dull lighting. I’m just considering withdrawing my offer when he clasps my hand. In those small seconds that they touch I can feel the callouses on his fingertips and the palm of his hand and they’re so identical to the ones that I know are on Ty’s hands, that no amount of special batting gloves or lotion could heal, that I feel a familiar jolt pass through me. 

It’s not a good feeling. 

“It’s a deal,” he echoes, and there’s something behind his eyes and in his tone, like a snake that had just spotted a mouse, that has me instantly snatching my hand back. 

“Okay then,” I say starting to gather my things from the floorboard. 

His eyes dart around from the rain to his backseat and back again, he looks like an actor who forgot his lines “Umm, you want me to walk you up, I think I’ve got an umbrella back here somewhere.”

The completely unexpected offer leaves me speechless and my hand freezes on the door handle. “No,” I say, pulling the lever, “It’s fine. Besides if the neighbors see the mayors kid walking up to our house my mom’s gonna have a conniption.”

“Why? “he asks with mock defensiveness “I happen to know that mothers love me.”

I bark out an involuntary laugh, “Not even your own,” I say before I feel the smile fall from my face. 

“Jesus, Annie,” he drawls, a sincere laugh on the edges of his tone. “I think I like this side of you.” 

_‘Good,’_ I think, _‘Because, it’s the only one you’re ever going to see.’_

But I just give him a tight-lipped smile as I tighten my grip and push the door open. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” I rush out, “And we can work out the details then.” 

“Later, Annie.” I hear as I duck my head and splash my way to my front porch. 

It takes me two tries before I’m able to get my key to work and I barely have time to put my book sack and camera bag down when I hear the tell-tell beeping of an incoming text. 

Despite the text, the first notification I notice is a missed call from Aunt Maddie. For a second my stomach plummets: what if something happened to my mom, or Tyler or Kyle or... A million scenarios run through my mind in that single breath. But when I notice there hasn’t been another and that my phone is silent, I know it probably wasn’t important and I let that breath I had been holding out. 

Planning to call her back, I move onto the text from a number I don’t know. 

**Unknown: Or we could text them right now like normal people.**

It takes me a second to think about those words, to wonder about who would have sent me such a vague message and then my phone chimes again. 

**its jackson btw**

I only stare back down at my phone. 

How in the hell had he gotten my number? 

Standing up, I rush back outside to see if he is still idling in our driveway, but his truck is nowhere to be seen. 

Shaking my head, I’m just turning to go back inside when I swear I see Tyler’s car flying past. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so-so sorry for the delay in posting. If you guys like it, the next will be a lot sooner and it's Tyler's chapter. :)

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you guys like this idea and want to read more.


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